Review Detail

Bog Gone! #1: A Graphic Novel (Finder's Creatures)

Middle Grade Fiction 1745

The Case of the Tickled Pink Swamp

November 04, 2023

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

Finder is a frog in second grade who idolizes the detective Seymour Warts. Her best friends are a beaver, Chopper, and a turtle, Keeper. They all hang out together at the bog, but one morning they all wake up to find everyone GONE! They start their investigation with Big Al, an owl of whom they are all afraid. They know that since he is nocturnal, he might have seen something, and he gives them a hint: he saw headlights in the middle of the night. The trio also finds a carving on Al's tree, C.R.O.A.K., which stands for the Committe to Restore Order to the Animal Kingdom. The group believes in segregating animals, sort of like a zoo. They kidnap animals, lock them up, and leave a mysterious calling card. Their leader is the Zookeeper. Finder locates several clues, including a feather coated in goo, and a link to the Tickled Pink drink corporation. After meeting a variety of quirky characters, voyaging into suspicious basements, and having some fun during stake outs, will Finder and her friends be able to locate the denizens of the bog before it is too late?

Good Points

This graphic novel is full of adventure and goofy hijinks. This has a whiff of film noir to it, especially when Seymour Warts, in his Sherlock Holmes' deerstalker cap comes on the scene. Finder is committed to solving the mystery, and her friends are along for the ride, even if they are not as serious as she is. There are lots of quirky supporting characters, like a mustachioed kangaroo covered in tattooes, Snapper, a local investigator who is a lizard of some sort, and Old-Lady Goose Liver.

The colors are very bright, but with a darker palette suitable to the mysterious content. The outlines of the characters are in very thick black lines. I love how the illustrator can convey so much emotion even though the eyes are just dots! My one quibble is that the text is very wordy and in very small font. This makes it more of a middle grade novel, so I wish that Finder had been older than second grade.

Green's Investigators, Kochalka's Banana Fox series, Eaton's Flying Beaver Brothers, Braddock's Stinky Cecil, and, of course, Blabey's hilarious Bad Guys books.